This invention relates to a machine for applying to containers, such as bottles, normal length labels, such as body labels, and extra-length labels, such as those which completely encircle the containers.
Labeling machines that have two labeling stations for applying labels of different sizes or labels at different locations on containers are known. Each station has an element for applying glue to the labels, a magazine from which labels are withdrawn and transferred to the container and an element for brushing over the label to press it onto the container. The containers are conveyed to a rotary table which moves them through a circular path. Each container goes onto a rotary plate which is driven to rotate the container about its vertical axis at appropriate times as it proceeds in a circular path. In prior art machines, the containers on the rotary plates first pass the encircling or extra-length labeling station to the brush-on element at which they are rotated continually then they pass to the normal or short-length labeling station and its brush-on element where the containers stand still relative to the rotary table and complete a 90 degree oscillation between the gripper cylinder that grips a label from the magazine and the brush-on station. This known labeling machine provides for applying normal length labels or extra-length labels without substantial change-over work. However, because the elements that perform the various operations with the labels are arranged in series around the rotational path of the rotary table and the stations themselves are arranged in series around the table in non-overlapping relationship. It becomes necessary to use a rotary table whose diameter is greater than a designer would like it to be. A consequence is that the machine base must be larger and this undesirably increases the cost of the machine. Moreover, in prior art machines that apply labels of different sizes to containers, when it is desired to changeover to treating bottles of different diameters the drive mechanisms or the rotating plates that support the containers along their circular path must also be changed in many respects. One reason for this is that for the extra length labels that encircle the containers, the labels are taken directly from a magazine by attachment to a coating of glue that was previously applied to the containers in which case the change in peripheral speeds of the containers having different diameters must be accounted for.